22/05/2026
Is our Education System a Trap?
Reliance's founder, Dhirubhai Ambani.
Adani group's founder, Gautam Adani.
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.
Apple's Steve Jobs.
Microsoft's Bill Gates.
Wipro's Azim Premji.
Do you know what is common among all of them? So, you will immediately say, "Sir, they are among the richest and most successful people in the world."
But there is one more amazing thing common among all of them—they all saved themselves from a *trap* in time, and the name of that trap is the *Education System*, inside which neither education is left nor any system.
> "Outside the school, when life takes an exam, it doesn't take it subject-wise."
> "This is the misfortune in India. The education of the rich is different, the education of the poor is different. After that, both are made to run in the same race."
> "And in the US, there are more than 5 lakh people who don't send their children to school. Ironically, mostly all teachers, because they know how screwed up the system is."
Javed Akhtar Sahab has said a very wonderful thing right now:
"If you ask an 8-9-year-old boy or girl in any school in this country to draw a *scenery*, that child will draw three or four mountains, a rising sun, a river in front, a tree, a hut, and some birds flying in the air."
Friends, at the most creative age, creativity has been shattered. Don't you think that in our education system, children are coming out like cold drink bottles coming out of a factory conveyor belt? All identical—same cap, same label, same taste.
And see the irony, we like movies like 3 Idiots where Aamir Khan is teaching that:
"Don't run after success, become capable; success will follow you, scraping its feet."
> "Don't run after success. Excellence! Chase excellence! Success will follow you, scraping its feet."
But we are still pressuring our children to get percentages.
> "Learn something from your brother, you mindless idiot!"
> "I don't want to study, I don't want to fill out the form for IIT. I will do what I want to do."
In real life, we are still the same "Virus" who used to say, *Life is a race, and those who come second, no one even remembers them. Remember, life is a race. If you don't run fast, someone will crush you and move ahead.*
Friends, the world has changed in the last 100 years. Look on the screen—this is a 100-year-old telephone, and this is today's smartphone. This is a 100-year-old car, and this is today's Tesla. There is a difference between earth and sky. But now look at this—this is a 100-year-old classroom, and this is today's classroom. The same wooden benches, the same blackboard, and the same one person standing in front, driving 50 different brilliant minds with the same stick.
The system that has not been able to change itself in the last 100 years, how on earth will it prepare our children for this changing world?
> "I studied with great struggle, taught tuitions. I have been teaching tuitions since 2012, studied till now, but I could achieve nothing."
Albert Einstein had screamingly said, *Every human is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.*
Our education system is doing exactly this. It is making the fish climb the tree, telling the elephant to fly, and training the lion to graze on grass.
I will take you 5,000 years back to the period of Mahabharata. There, Guru Dronacharya gave education to all Pandavas according to their capability—Arjun was taught archery, Bheem the mace, Nakul and Sahdev the sword, and Yudhishthir the spear. Now just think, if Dronacharya had told Arjun, "You play the bow, and along with that, you also have to master the mace. If you cannot master the mace, you will be called a fool," would Arjun have ever become the world's best archer? Never.
If he had told Bheem, "Your brother Arjun plays the bow so well, you don't even know how to play the bow, you keep roaming around carrying a mace all day," would Bheem's capability have been utilized properly? Never.
Friends, our ancestors knew that every human is different. They understood that a fish cannot climb a tree. Everyone's capability is different, everyone's talent is different, and accordingly, everyone was nurtured. Here, everyone is being driven by the same stick.
Now just think, if Sachin Tendulkar's father had forcibly locked him in a room to rote-learn trigonometry and history, would the country have got the God of Cricket today? If Lata Mangeshkar had been forced to memorize chemistry equations, would that voice have ever echoed across the world? Never.
The man who ruined the education system was named *Lord Macaulay. The year was 1835; we were slaves. He put a proposal in the British Parliament. He said, *"We have to prepare a class that is Indian in color and blood, but absolutely English in taste, opinion, and mind."** He destroyed our great Gurukul system. Gurukuls taught us to be masters, and Macaulay wanted servants. He created a system where from a clerk to a soldier, everyone just followed the orders of the British government.
The British left, but Macaulay's poison is still flowing in our school syllabi today. Even today, we are producing the same clerks; it's just that now they are sitting with their heads bowed over laptops instead of files. Lord Macaulay's purpose was not to educate us; his purpose was to break the backbone of India.
Our ancestors were extremely wise, friends. They understood that education in Gurukul did not mean rote learning. Along with scriptures (Shastra), weapons (Shastra) were also taught. Music education was also given. From political science to business, everything was taught. Every child's character was built. And most importantly, every child was taught according to his nature and his capability. We left all that behind and embraced a grading system that says: "If you get 95% marks, you are God, and if you get 40%, you are garbage."
We are from the country of Ramanujan, who failed in college because his mind was only into maths. Today's system probably won't even give Mr. Ramanujan the job of a peon. Do we want to live in a society where a piece of paper decides how intelligent you are?
Let me ask you another question—tell me honestly, putting your hand on your heart—did college teach you *Communication Skills* properly? When to speak, how to speak, where not to speak, when to remain silent, how to listen—no one teaches this. Is any college teaching proper *Sales*? How negotiation is done, how appointments are booked by cold calling, how rejections are handled, what the law of average is called—no one teaches this.
*Financial Education* is nowhere given—how to use money correctly, where to invest it, where to save it. Who is teaching children that a person does not become rich or poor because of what they earn, but rather because of their spending habits? Who is telling children how to take advantage of compounding, how inflation is beaten, what are actually assets and what are liabilities in life? Who is telling children? In the name of financial education, it is an absolute zero in many schools and colleges.
And what is the importance of *Team Building*? How do teams work, how do you build teams? No one is teaching this. You will be surprised to know that in any corporate company, after recruitment, these are the very skills required which are practical. I myself train many big companies. There, when HR people do fresh hiring, they call 10 out of 100 resumes. Among those candidates, they look at how the communication skills are, whether the candidate can express his point properly or not, what his attitude towards life is, whether there is a hunger to learn or not, whether he wants to work hard or wants to become the boss on the very first day. My HR friends tell me, "Sir, maximum candidates are not even employable," and this is true.
If we look at the India Skill Report 2024, more than 50% of the graduates in our country are not even fit to get a job. The degree is in hand, there are dreams in the eyes, the parents' chest is swelling with pride, but what is the reality? The reality is that when that child goes to give an interview, he gets rejection. Why? Because many colleges or syllabi have belong to the stone age, while the world is running at the speed of AI and rockets.
Do you know what the system is in Germany? It is called *Dual Education*. The child studies in school and at the same time works in a company. The result? The youth unemployment rate there is less than 5%. And us? We keep the child locked in books till the age of 22, then pull him out and say, "Go, conquer the world." That child goes out and finds that the world has already changed. No one even told him.
A student getting 90% marks and a student getting 60% marks—both are unemployed. The only difference is that the 90% one took a little more time to understand that he too is unemployed.
In India, more than 14,000 children are committing su***de every year. 14,000! Meaning about 40 innocent lives are slipping out of our hands every day. And this figure is increasing every year at the rate of 34.4%. Something is going very wrong, which needs to be worked upon at a war level. I feel that we are not even teaching children how to live life. We are making them run in a race that has no finish line at all.
> "What will you do?"
> "How do you know that if I don't do IIT, I won't be successful? Did anyone ever ask him what he wants to do? Did anyone ever ask me? My roommate, he also came to IIT to fulfill his parents' dream—he committed su***de, he couldn't take it."
And I even go to the extent of saying that every child is born a genius. School and home are tampering with his software, ruining him. School is locking him in a cage of a syllabus where thinking anything other than marks is considered a sin. In pursuit of our false social status, we put that tiny mind on a conveyor belt that turns him not into a capable human, but into an obedient servant.
> "I don't understand engineering. Even if I become one, I will be a very bad engineer."
> "People will laugh!"
Earlier people used to say, *"If you study and write, you will become a king; if you play and jump, you will be ruined."* But tell me the truth, which king? That king who, after grinding in school and college for 20 years, is wandering door-to-door with a degree in hand for a job of 15,000? Or that king who, with a B.Tech degree, is standing in the queue for a peon's job at a railway station?
I am not joking. A few years ago, recruitment came out for SSC MTS. The posts were for peon and cleaning staff. The vacancies were about 11,000. Do you know how many forms were filled? Think—55 lakh!
> "More than 50 lakh candidates have applied for this SSC MTS recruitment."
And the sad part is not that the crowd was huge; the sad part is that in that line, B.Tech, M.Tech, and MBA holders were standing with their degrees. Think, we talk about progress, but what is the reality? We are just printing degrees where there is no room for innovation and creativity.
But the cure for this disease will not happen just by blaming the system, friends, but by changing our thinking. We have to change the *'Degree-First'* mindset and adopt a *'Skill-First'* approach.
Listen to this part of the video very carefully, here are some of my suggestions that we should implement immediately in our education system:
#1. End Rote-Learning Education
Even today, most schools and colleges emphasize memorization, not understanding.
> "Mention the textbook definition if you want to pass the examinations. This definition is in the book, and if you want to pass, you will write this exact thing."
There should be *Concept-Based Learning. Practical and real-life examples should be given in the classroom. The focus should be on **Problem-Solving Skills. The objective of today's education should not be a memory test, but **Mind Development. Today the system is creating obedient students, whereas the world needs **Creative Thinkers*.
#2. Financial Education
Every child coming out of school must know what is an expense and what is an investment. He must know that phones should never be taken on EMI. He must know that before taking a loan for a thing whose value depreciates with time, he has to think a hundred times. He must know that he should never take a loan for a holiday in his life. He must know that *Savings and Investments* should be started as early as possible. We have to tell him that before spending money on useless things, you have to think not a hundred times, but a thousand times. He must know that the money he is spending blindly, the father's face has got wrinkles to earn that very money. And I think there is no better place than school to tell all this. It is my belief that when our child comes out of school, he should already be financially educated. He must know the fundamental ABCs of expenses and earnings. Learning at this age is remembered for life, friends, and this is the absolute right age to learn all this.
#3. Compulsory Skill-Based Education
Skill-based education should be made compulsory because there are many degree holders in India, but skill holders are next to none. From the school level itself, skills like *Coding, AI, Digital Marketing, and Finance* should be made mandatory to learn because the coming time belongs to the *Skill Economy, my friend. And children have to be taught **Entrepreneurship* from school itself. We prepare the child for a job, but we don't think about making him a *Job Creator. Business simulation projects should run at the school level. Children should be taught to take **Calculated Risks* so that fear comes out of their minds.
#4. Regular Teacher Training
There is a great need to make teacher training regular. The backbone of any education system is the teacher. They should also be completely updated. But in many places, teachers are still teaching with outdated methods.
> "N-O-G-E... Nozh... Nozh means nose."
> "Teach the children, sir, the spelling of 11. This is 11... A-I-V-E-N-E... 11."
In my opinion, there should be continuous teacher training and *Performance-Based Evaluation* should also be there. All our teachers should be equipped with modern teaching tools because an inspired teacher can change not thousands, but millions of lives.
#5. Emotional & Life Education
Include emotional and life education in the curriculum. In India, children learn maths, but they don't learn *Stress Management. There should be classes on **Mental Health Education*—it is the biggest demand of today's time. Small children are in stress, in depression. We hadn't even heard these words in our time, man—neither had we heard of stress nor depression. Mental health is the biggest hot topic in the whole world today. We should immediately start teaching this in every school and college.
There should be continuous lectures on *Communication Skills* because this very skill decides whether you will get respect or insult in future. It is my belief that after 7th-8th class, every day, one period must be dedicated to bettering communication skills. This one skill can make you a leader in the world. And there are many other soft skills, friends, which must be in the school and college curriculum. From time management to social media, from civic sense to our roots and culture—there is a lot that should start from the school-college level.
It is my belief that education is incomplete without *Life Skills*. And the day we start picking a child's character and creativity over his report card, on that day, this structure built by Macaulay will collapse on its own.
source: social media
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